Millions Of Canadians Can’t Use Debit Cards Due To “Nationwide Internet Outage”

Canada’s Rogers Communications Inc. reported widespread network outages on Friday morning, affecting financial institutions, government agencies, law enforcement, businesses, and wireless phone and home internet customers. 

“We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible,” Toronto-based Rogers tweeted. 

We know how important it is for our customers to stay connected. We are aware of issues currently affecting our networks and our teams are fully engaged to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We will continue to keep you updated as we have more information to share.

— Rogers News (@AboutRogers) July 8, 2022

Customers were extremely angry with Rogers, responding to the tweet by saying:

“$400/mth for services I can’t even f**king use. This company is and will always be a f**king joke,” one person said. 

Another said: “for my American followers: Canada has only two companies with telecom infrastructure in the entire country and one of them is currently suffering a complete nationwide outage.” 

WSJ reports Rogers’ customers first reported outages around 0400 ET. Police in Ottawa and Toronto warned residents of connection issues with the 9-1-1 emergency hotline.

“The outage, which appears bigger than the one last year that largely affected consumers, comes as Rogers is attempting to take over rival Shaw Communications,” Reuters notes. 

There were also significant issues with Interac, a Canadian e-transfer service, which tweeted around 1035ET about “nationwide Rogers outages,” impacting debit-card transactions online and at checkout counters. 

“This is impacting INTERAC Debit and INTERAC eTransfer. INTERAC Debit is currently unavailable online and at checkout,” Interac tweeted. 

The Canadian interbank network also said: “INTERAC e-Transfer services are unavailable at most financial institutions, impacting the ability to send and receive payments. We are waiting for updates from Rogers on their resolution.”

A spokeswoman for Royal Bank of Canada told WSJ the widespread internet outage is affecting some of its lender’s services across the country. 

NetBlocks‘ real-time data confirmed a “major internet courage” across Canada where “national connectivity down to 75% of ordinary levels” this morning.

Another internet tacking website shows a significant loss in online traffic beginning in the early morning hours. 

SIgnificant #Internet outage observed on @Rogers in #Canada🇨🇦.@CloudflareRadar shows a near complete loss of traffic from AS812 starting ~0830 UTC.

The company has not yet provided any information on the cause of the outage.https://t.co/wrcq1IoxTChttps://t.co/LWJLwM9qIm pic.twitter.com/EmYv0vi57t

— Cloudflare Radar (@CloudflareRadar) July 8, 2022

Here’s what people are saying on Twitter about the widespread outage:

The affected cities. It seems whole Canada is under internet outage. pic.twitter.com/FOhiZQufqo

— Rahul Kumar (@rahul_0509_) July 8, 2022

One of Canada’s two major internet companies has been completely down for hours, impacting countless businesses who can’t get online.

Also, debit / credit machines are down nationwide as they are tied to the downed internet company. This is some real Diaboromon shit right now pic.twitter.com/fkIC156HNu

— TheDigiKnow (@thedigiknow) July 8, 2022

6 hours of half the country not having access to wireless/internet. If we don’t kneecap Telco monopoly in this country we’re screwed. Banks, gas stations and general infrastructure are toast across Canada today. Billions lost because Rogers and Bell hold us hostage. pic.twitter.com/PVZphNtAMe

— Dean Blundell (@ItsDeanBlundell) July 8, 2022

Canada’s telecommunications provider, #Rogers is down across the country & around 11.3 million user’s are facing, No cell phone service, no internet, no customer service. & apparently some people can’t even call 911. Also impacting #Fido
Millions people this morning went to 1994!

— Mujtaba Haris (@mujtaba_haris) July 8, 2022

Rogers is down, 50% of Canada’s telecommunications depends on them, so debit, atm and 911 in some areas are down, I’m on Telus but I would trade my internet data for access to my atm card, I just want some goddamn breakfast and smokes.

— Pureblooded & Organic (@NazareanCreed) July 8, 2022

There’s still no word on what caused the massive outage.